60 Minutes

Any chance that Sunday Night will interview the father including images of happy children? He seems to be happy to talk to Australian media.

How much responsibility does Tara Brown take as the journalist? Will she suffer a reprimand over the matter?

I’m guessing she won’t based on the reaction so far.

Is it really worth keeping 60 Minutes when it rates average at best (partly due to the often variable timeslot, but lets not get into that debate right now) and especially if the stopwatch’s large budget could be better spent elsewhere like investing in the news service or new primetime programing? Probably not.

Sure, the axing of 60 Minutes might initially give Seven and Sunday Night a free kick (I don’t know how much that show costs to produce, but it probably wouldn’t be massively cheaper than 60 Mins) but I do think that it would probably be beneficial for Nine in the long run.

I reckon it’ll either be “rested” or will be a reduced series beyond this year.
I would assume if it is to stay a review of money spent on the program will happen and the purse strings will be significantly tightened…

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I agree. At the end of the day, the only reason why they are “free” is because the Nine executives were able to “buy” them out of prison. If an normal, everyday person had of been involved in this situation and not media personalities / crew, they would of more than likely had to of served the maximum twenty years imprisonment. They wouldn’t of been freed, so why should the 60 Minutes crew be freed?

Surely there are other ways of reducing costs before they axe the show altogether?

You’re horrendously naive if you think 60 Minutes is the only show that pulls these stunts.

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I definitely think that it’s quite possible that all investigative reporting teams in Australian media have been guilty of paying interviewees for stories and other such conduct which could be considered to be unethical, whether or not the general public hears about it is an entirely different matter though!

I don’t doubt that at all, however as has previously been mentioned, they have put an international brand (60Mins CBS) into the limelight for the wrong reasons. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are some ramifications for that.

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I wonder if 60mins did try and run a story on this, and then the team was convicted, would the advertising revenue be confiscated as proceeds of crime?

60 Minutes

Sunday 24 April at 8:15 pm

SURPRISED BY FIVE
WATCH THE SNEAK PEEK
When Kim Tucci fell pregnant she was as thrilled as any mother-to-be. A brother or sister for her two young daughters … or so she thought. So imagine the shock for Kim and her husband Vaughn when they found out she was expecting not one baby, but five. Naturally conceived quintuplets are extremely rare – a one in 55 million chance. What’s even rarer is the opportunity to witness this remarkable journey from start to finish. This Sunday you will see the story of five little miracles as we follow Kim and Vaughn through the highs and lows of pregnancy, birth and beyond.
Reporter: Allison Langdon
Producers: Garry McNab, Alice Dalley

THE WILD MAN
WATCH THE SNEAK PEEK
David Attenborough and Charles Wooley go back a long, long way. As a kid, Charles was spellbound by his earliest wildlife programs on black and white television. Then as a reporter in his thirties, he was thrilled to interview him. It’s fair to say they’ve both aged a bit since. And on the eve of Attenborough’s 90th birthday they met again in London. As you will discover, Sir David is still pushing the boundaries. He is more outspoken than ever about the state of the planet and has also become a bionic man, with two new titanium knees. And just as he has always done, he will dazzle your senses with something new and quite incredible – this time the cutting-edge technology of virtual reality.
Reporter: Charles Wooley
Producer: Nick Greenaway

I guess that will be up to the internal team investigating the whole drama. There was clearly more than just a journalist involved here.

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The Australian (behind paywall) published a really interesting article today outlining how this entire saga came about.

In short, Sally Faulkner might have had her children back if Ben Williamson didn’t insist on her doing one last shot - ringing up her husband in the middle of a Beirut sheet

We made Mistakes

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There have been several references now in the media including from Sally Faulkner and repeated tonight on Media Watch that Nine will run a special on the Lebanon story on Wednesday 4 May possibly running for 90 minutes.

It’s been revealed by Fairfax Media that 60 Minutes were involved in another ‘child recovery’ case in 2014 where a mother took her child away from the father before fleeing on a speedboat to Greece. Liz Hayes and a film crew were with the mother to film what was happening

The case is currently being heard in the Family Court after the father lodged an action alleging the child had been kidnapped.

60 Minutes

Sunday 1 May April at 8:30 pm

THE SLEEPING CURSE
We all know what it’s like to have a bad night’s sleep, tossing and turning for hours and facing the next day tired and cranky. Well imagine the nightmare of waking up but never getting back to sleep ever again. That’s the cruel reality for a handful of families throughout the world. Fatal Familial Insomnia is an extremely rare and debilitating brain disease with no treatment and no cure. It steals your sleep, your mind, your motor skills and ultimately your life. For Queensland brother and sister, Hayley and Lachlan Webb, this terrifying disease could strike at any time - a family curse that they are determined to break.
Reporter: Karl Stefanovic
Producers: Ali Smith, Jo Townsend

BLASPHEMY ON BROADWAY
Matt Stone and Trey Parker have made a fortune out of offending everyone. For nearly two decades this wicked comedy duo has been writing and voicing the controversial cartoon South Park. Along the way they’ve poked fun at just about every celebrity and minority there is. Their latest comedic assault is on stage - a highly successful Broadway show called The Book of Mormon, which, as the name suggests, has the Mormon religion well and truly in its sights. Like everything Matt and Trey do, nothing and no-one is off limits.
This duo has made a career out of offending people…so consider yourself warned.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producer: Phil Goyen

BONOBO BUSINESS
Of all the animals on earth, the bonobo is one of our closest genetic relatives. No wonder then, they could teach us humans a thing or two. Closely related to the chimpanzee, the bonobo is the rarest and most intelligent of the great apes, a peace loving primate a million miles from its violent chimp cousin. Bonobos are caring and compassionate - females rule the roost, aggression is rare and life involves plenty of fun and copious amounts of sex. But as you’ll see in our report, the bonobo lives in only one place in the world - the war-ravaged Democratic Republic of Congo in central Africa - which is why it’s the least understood ape on the planet.
Reporter: Anderson Cooper
Producers: Michael Gavshon, David M. Levine

A NEW CHAPTER
The mental and physical challenges have been immense, but 18 months on from the shark attack that took his left arm, right hand and very nearly his life, Sean Pollard is showing us all the meaning of the word inspiration. Sean was savagely mauled by, not one, but two great white sharks as he surfed on a remote beach at Esperance in Western Australia. We first met him soon after the attack, as he set out on the long road to reclaim his life. Now, with a new bionic hand, Sean is making remarkable progress and in the process he is proving to us all that anything is possible.
Reporter: Michael Usher
Producer: Garry McNab

Heard a radio promo for 60 Minutes to day about “a major story” (or seething earth shattering like that) and then no mention of what the story was. I hope they are expecting that some might think it is about the Lebanon/Tara Brown story.